The Stories of John Cheever

For six weeks, I read two stories a morning. It was like brain candy. I absolutely loved it and loved the act of reading it. Cheever is often incredibly funny, and he has masterfully captured the essence of time and place.

His descriptions are so vivid. For example, he writes, "He was a cheerful, heavy man with a round face that looked exactly like a pudding. Everyone was glad to see him, as one is glad to see, at the end of a meal, the appearance of a bland, fragrant, and nourishing dish made of fresh eggs, nutmeg, and country cream." This comparison of the man's face to a pudding and his presence to a delicious dish really brings the scene to life. It makes you feel as if you can see the man and understand the reaction of those around him. Cheever's writing is truly a delight, and these short stories have been a wonderful addition to my mornings.

I look forward to continuing to explore his work and seeing what other gems he has in store.

John Cheever is an exceptionally brilliant raconteur, and he is truly one of my all-time favorites. He has an excellent understanding of the very essence of our lives.

Although the entire anthology is like a precious gold mine, The Swimmer and The Day the Pig Fell into the Well appear to be my most preferred nuggets within it.

This is not an imitation, she thought. This is not the product of custom. This is the unique place, the unique air, where my children have spent the best of themselves. The realization that none of them had done well made her sink back in her chair. She squinted the tears out of her eyes. What had made the summer always an island, she thought? What had made it such a small island? What mistakes had they made? What had they done wrong? They had loved their neighbors, respected the force of modesty, and held honor above gain. Then where had they lost their competence, their freedom, their greatness? Why should these good and gentle people who surrounded her seem like the figures in a tragedy?

Unrealized dreams, unfulfilled hopes, unsuccessful plans, and the rivers of sadness – all of these are indeed an integral part of our lives as well. We can all relate to the emotions and experiences described in Cheever's works, which makes them so powerful and engaging. His ability to capture the essence of human nature and the complexities of life is truly remarkable.

Try reading John Cheever all summer and working at a country club. That'll mess with you. John Cheever's works are known for their complex characters and deep exploration of human nature. Spending an entire summer immersed in his stories can have a profound impact on your perspective.

At the same time, working at a country club provides a unique social environment. You interact with a diverse range of people, from wealthy members to fellow employees. The combination of these two experiences can create a sense of disorientation or confusion.

On one hand, you are delving into the psychological depths of Cheever's characters, while on the other hand, you are dealing with the practicalities and social hierarchies of the country club. This contrast can make it difficult to reconcile your inner world with the external reality. It can mess with your sense of self and your understanding of the world around you.

**"The Complex World of Cheever's Stories"**

\n  “betta check yo’self before you wreck yo’self.”\n
Da Ali G

Party Bear in Bleak MidSeptember

Stories have the power to transport us to different worlds, and the works of John Cheever are no exception. I'm sure I'd appreciate these stories more if I could always see the silver lining in the midst of sadness, broken lives, and shattered dreams. A few years ago, I loved three story collections that also had a melancholy bent: Fortune Smiles: Stories by Adam Johnson, Thirteen Ways of Looking: Fiction by Colum McCann, and The Tsar of Love and Techno: Stories by Anthony Marra.

For me, the difference between these three and Cheever's collected stories, when taken as a whole, lies in the glimpse of hope in humanity, the hint of redemption or forgiveness, or the implication that evil may be defeated in a battle of the forces, though perhaps not in the full war. With Cheevers' stories, I often have difficulty seeing the redemptive. If this classifies me as a naive idealist, a resident of a fantasy world, or just a dumbass, then so be it.



Cheever's most famous story, \"The Enormous Radio\" (1947), exemplifies why I'm not overly fond of this set. In it, an NYC husband buys a \"dark\" gumwood cabinet radio for his family's 12th floor flat, despite their financial inability to afford it. The radio starts picking up conversations and arguments from others in the building, initially shocking and then fascinating them. The wife becomes obsessed with eavesdropping and then fears that others can hear her family's conversations. She then becomes depressed from constantly being exposed to the problems of an entire building. Much like the radio, this collection depresses me, similar to hearing about others' (even fictional others') adultery, alcoholism, and domestic abjection and/or abuse (all of these stories touch on one of these three areas) without a glimmer of hope somewhere.

Don't misunderstand me. Cheever wrote stories that I do appreciate and enjoy, including a few in this assortment. However, as a whole, this selection acts as a sort of black hole for depression. To be sure, these stories were likely grand in the late 40s through the early 70s when they were written because they showed the shiny, happy people from the city and the suburbs suffering problems that Hollywood would not show on television, with the airwaves filled with the black and white of shows like \"Leave it to Beaver,\" \"The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,\" and \"Father Knows Best.\"



My favorite of these stories is \"The Sorrows of Gin,\" which follows a pre-teen (Amy) as she watches her parents descend deeper and deeper into alcoholism, attending parties nearly every night and rarely showing the slightest interest in her. Cheever wrote this from personal experience, as a lifelong alcoholic whose relationships were destroyed by his alcohol abuse. I've not read or seen a story that so powerfully distilled (pun intended) the negative effects of alcoholism on a family. I say \"alcoholism,\" not \"alcohol\" - most people can drink in moderation and only occasionally; the alcoholic, for whatever reason, cannot. Here, the selfishness of the parents robs their daughter of time, love, and care. Amy's reaction and attempt to \"save\" her parents lead to an unexpected demoralization of the family as a unit.

All in all, this is an excellent collection of stories for the time period in terms of structure, writing, and moments of revelation. It offers a complex and often sobering look at the human condition.

Could you imagine being Susan Cheever and being informed as an adult that a temper tantrum you had as a child was the inspiration for one of your father's well-known stories?

Wouldn't you be curious about what you were doing as a child that led your father to write a story where the little girl in the family meets a tragic end in an accident? Well, that story, "The Hartley's," along with many others, is featured in "The Stories of John Cheever."

This Pulitzer Prize-winning collection contains some of the finest stories written by a man whom many regard as the greatest short story writer of all time. Cheever (1912 - 1982) wrote about what people aspired to be in depression and post-war America.

What Cheever accomplished in writing about those people in that era was to shift our focus from what these people possessed and make the reader see who they truly were. "The Sorrows of Gin," "The Enormous Radio," and "Of Youth and Beauty" all demonstrate how what we strive to be may be quite different from what we actually are, and perhaps the real lesson lies in understanding these differences.

Cheever's chosen genre was the short story. Although he wrote a few novels, this collection offers the reader a wonderful glimpse into a specific period of time, told by a master. My personal favorite is "Christmas is a Sad Season For the Poor," probably one of the finest examples of a seasonal tale ever written. Cheever achieved that understanding that we are all seeking. We are fortunate to have this collection.

--Terri

From ICPL Staff Picks Blog

**The Phantom Radio**

Reading these stories means coming into contact with the inevitable awareness of the mystery of literature. One searches for something while in reality the last thing one desires is to reach it. This is why Cheever makes his phantoms speak through the pages, conscious of making them listen to the shadows of the reader, as if through a doubly spectral radio.

Nothing sounds as familiar as the light and cheerful apocalypses of his characters, their vital regrets and dark desires, the bonds and wars, the hypocritical projects, the liminal existences, and all the psychological geography of a society that is constantly being made and unmade, the same and different from the day before, the same and different in the wait for the last date, the only ineluctable sovereign of the most accurate and profound pages.

How many loves, how many paths, how many miracles and how much poetry in the true, dreaming and lucid humanity of this ancient book that travels towards us from a distant future. Maybe Cheever has given up on pursuing a truth: behind this renunciation, the conviction that every narration of the facts carries with it a trace of fiction that infinitely alters the plane of the real.

And then, only by constructing these fictions so true can one truly listen to someone and put into words, into discourse, the most genuine and corporeal substance that lies behind the thousand appearances of each human being. Investigating feelings, investigating love is a recursive and illusory task, it means moving away from one's goal while struggling to build it and so only telling and knowing can give rise to these solitary epiphanies, to these vertiginous revelations for which we will always be doubtfully happy to have concluded, for the moment, our experience as readers.

If when meeting yourselves, sometimes you want to discover something new, let the stories of Cheever be your curious master.

Wonderful collection of stories

This is a wonderful collection of stories that focus on regular everyday people. These individuals may find themselves adrift in life, facing moral dilemmas where they slip up, or being plunged into troubling situations. It's truly remarkable how these ordinary lives are brought to light in such a captivating way.

In fact, this collection serves as a blueprint that many other American authors have followed, albeit with varying degrees of success. Each writer has tried to capture the essence of the human experience as Cheever does in this collection.

However, it's important to note that Cheever is a landmark American writer. His works are filled with the best of human emotions and experiences. Even when there are elements that might seem cliched or worst, he has kind of invented them in his own unique way. This is why he gets a free pass, so to speak. His contributions to American literature are truly significant and cannot be ignored.

I have been engrossed in reading these short stories for a considerable period of time.

Although I'm not done with them yet, I'm certain that I will finish them eventually because they are truly excellent.

The settings of the stories are either in New England or New York.

At first glance, not much seems to happen in the stories, by which I mean there isn't a great deal of action.

However, they are centered around the relationships between people.

Characterization, conversation, and the exploration of the connection between individuals - that's what it's all about.

And Cheever is a true master in this regard.

His ability to bring the characters to life and depict their complex relationships with such authenticity and depth is truly remarkable.

It's no wonder that these short stories have become so beloved and continue to be widely read and studied.